Originally Posted by Sunny Day

It's a damn shame anyone loses their home. The elderly are particularly vulnerable with their fixed incomes don't keep up with rising tax bills. People get in a situation and are embarrassed to ask family or friends for help. There are plenty of resources that can help them, but many times they don't know they exist. People have lost their homes & farms for back taxes as long as there has been a country.

A simple mortgage foreclosure, you have to be served with notice then if you lose, you sell have 90 days to find a way to save your home. Some states also require a court hearing that means the person losing their home can at least stay in the home for up to a year.
As for tax liens, it usually takes 3 years of unpaid taxes to lose a home with a 1 year right to pay off those back taxes. That means for 3 years you got notices in the mail.

I'm on the side of the person losing their home. But fact is people walk away from their mortgage when things go bad. Usually tearing up the place before they go or it sits empty for metal scrappers to strip the place.

Every week I go to the local foreclosure sale. People occasionally show up trying to save their home. I give them my card and tell them I can help (no charge) but they never call. But I'm also there as I have several investors, who know I know the local market so well I know the super bargains.

I realize that sounds I'm preying on the unfortunate, but by the time they get sold at the court house door 90+% are vacant. The owners gave up for what ever reason. And more than 1/2 the mortgages are way more than the actual value of the house. You can probably bet the realtor, appraiser & mortgage company inflated the value of the house and the buyers income.

Losing your home over a $400 water bill isn't right. Most jurisdictions a foreclosure sale of any kind has to be approved by a judge. Seemed this judge failed.